Trump: ‘You make a mistake here, there is nothing to work out’

It’s a little after 3 in the afternoon. Trump says he already has been up and working for 12 hours. He and first lady Melania Trump have met with Argentine President Mauricio Macri and his wife, Juliana Awada.

He has signed an executive order, creating an office to protect Veterans Affairs Department whistleblowers. Then he signed another, ordering an investigation of the relationship between aluminum imports and national security. …

Yet listen closely, especially when he speaks about decisions involving life and death, and you sense that sitting here, in the Oval Office, as the 45th president has humbled even Donald J. Trump.

“You can make a mistake in deals, and you work it out,” he explains at one point. “You make a mistake here, there is nothing to work out. You know it’s trouble. It could be big trouble. And it is life-threatening trouble for lots of people, potentially.” …

“It’s a very intensive process,” he says of the presidency. “Really intense. I get up to bed late and I get up early.” He rarely sleeps more than four hours, which is good, he explains, because he can call leaders around the world in the dark hours while the rest of Washington sleeps.

Death from Tomahawks:

In sharp contrast, Trump authorized the U.S. Navy to fire 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles against Syria in April after the regime of Bashar Assad attacked civilians with chemical weapons.

It was, he admits, his toughest decision so far. “I legitimized President Obama’s red line in the sand,” he says. “Which we had to do. I mean, somebody had to do it.”

Nevertheless, it was, he says, an incredibly difficult moment: “First of all, it is a hard decision. You don’t know what is going to happen,” once the missiles are fired. “Is one of them going to go haywire and end up in a city or in a town and kill a lot of people?

“But it was an important decision. Not an easy decision to make. Because you know, when you say ‘yes,’ there is death. … And death is very tough. Very tough. There is a lot of weight on this kind of decision.” …

Back to business after the interview:

An atmosphere — friendly, happy, energetic — infuses the Oval Office, already glowing with afternoon sunlight. You find yourself wondering what the next discussion among these figures will be, how it might add to two centuries of history, sometimes good, sometimes terrifying, that has unfolded within these curved walls.